Tunisian Salade Mechouia Recipes

HOW TO MAKE TUNISIAN GRILLED MECHOUIA SALAD

Steps:

• Using either a grill or your oven's broiler, char the outsides of the tomato, peppers, and onions until they're completely blackened and blistered, turning frequently to char all sides. Pay particular attention to charring the onions black (the onions are dense and solid and take longer to cook). Place the vegetables in a large bowl and cover with plastic wrap to allow them to steam in their own heat for 15 minutes.
• Peel the char off of the vegetables, coarsely chop them and place them in a bowl.
• Toast the caraway and coriander seeds in a dry skillet for a few minutes until they become fragrant. Grind them into a powder in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle. Add the spices with the olive oil and vinegar to the chopped vegetables and stir well. Salt and pepper to taste.
• Serve in shallow plates garnished as you wish.

SALAD MECHOUIA (TUNISIAN SALAD)

Steps:

• Prepare a grill to medium-high heat.
• Thread garlic cloves onto a metal skewer. Put garlic skewer, tomatoes, onions, peppers, chile, and eggplant on grill rack. Grill, turning occasionally, until tender and lightly charred all over, 6-7 minutes for garlic and tomatoes; 10 minutes for eggplant; 15 minutes for peppers and chile; 20 minutes for onions.
• Place peppers and chile in a large bowl; cover with plastic wrap and let stand 15 minutes.
• Coarsely chop tomatoes and eggplant. Peel and coarsely chop onions. Peel garlic cloves. Peel, seed, and coarsely chop peppers and chile.
• Place all vegetables in a food processor, along with oil, pulsing until pureed to desired consistency. Transfer to a large bowl. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

TUNISIAN SALADE MECHOUIA

Steps:

• Seed bell peppers,place in pan and set to broil for roughly 5 minutes on each side. You can also wrap the peppers in tin foil to minimize charring. 10 minutes into the bell pepper broiling, add the tomatoes to the pan. 15 minutes into the broiling, add the chilies and garlic clove into the pan. Remove the lot from the broiler and let cool. Meanwhile, hard boil the eggs. Next, carefully peel any charred skin off the tomatoes, bell peppers and chilies. Once peeled, and cooled enough to no longer be steaming, place the lot in a blender and stir, or chop, depending on your equipment, to a chunky-puree consistency, perhaps 10 seconds. Season with salt to taste. Pour contents into a bowl and drizzle olive oil all over the surface so that there is a thin film of oil atop the mechouia. (The olive oil dampens the spiciness somewhat.) Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator to chill for about 20 minutes. Once chilled sprinkle the tuna on top of the mechouia. Next, quarter the hard boiled eggs and decorate the top of the salad with both the eggs and olives. Serve at room temperature with pita or french bread. NB: You can adjust the spiciness by playing with the number of chilies you add to the mix. You can also, if you are so inclined and equipped, use a traditional mortar and pestle to pound the peppers instead of blending them.